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An stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a village for more than four decades of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement bordered by coniferous woods, meadows and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to straddle Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a barrier and then by a wall. American soldiers nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own division was torn down, and prior to their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers set about documenting their history. The effort is about to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will open. It was formally opened by the national president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite prepared. Telling the residents who lived through the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were bystanders of an cruel division, which tore relatives asunder and turned neighbors into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal split, which ripped families apart and turned local residents into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Right from its establishment in 1810, the community spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a princely house most famous for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by date of birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the peculiarity did not stand in the way of the inhabitants gathering in the same pub, visiting the very same place of worship and enrolling their young ones to the very same educational institution.

After the War Separation

Then came the World War II. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops put up wood stakes by the stream. For a year they occupied the whole village, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back back over the creek. For a time, residents could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present ID, even though everyone understood who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Frontier Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a concrete structure was erected, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The locals could still observe each other by ascending hills, but on the east side waving and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a East German secret police surveillance list for responding “same to you” to a western local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Development

I was told narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has dedicated a large part of his occupational time building it. Locals were asked early on about how much wall they wished to keep. They opted for a section on the western edge, near where a local resident was able to get away in the dead of night with a climbing device, subsequently the border was substantially reinforced.

Preserved Installations

2 observation towers are preserved alongside a collection of exhibits depicting the most dramatic dates in the community’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: nobody could come within 5km of the border. Farmers needed specific authorization to tend to their crops; the spouse could use the combine harvester but under no circumstances the pair, lest they attempted to make a run for it. Armed guards kept guard.

Wider Background

The border between Western Germany and the East Germany extended 1,400km, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is remembered and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many persons (exceeding 300) lost their lives trying to traverse it in countryside regions than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95% of escape attempts were unsuccessful.

Community Daily Living

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and caring for their land. They nor did they endorsed the East German authorities nor resisted it, Lebegern explains.

Visitors

For visitors, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Approximately 15,000 came to see annually, binoculars in possession, to look – and then swiftly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defence minister.

Twenty-five years after reunification, Tannbach, a broadcast production about a imaginary community similar to Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Current Evolutions

The opening of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, film screening area and big parking lot – is expected to